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Process improvements aren’t always just paperwork — sometimes they’re Whacky Wednesday Welding Workshops. This new initiative has quickly become a staple among the Welding Team at Gorbel® Henrietta thanks to Greg Van Epps.
Greg spent six years at the Cleveland Tramrail® factory, where our Patented Track Overhead Cranes are manufactured, in a handful of welding-related roles before transferring to Henrietta as a Production Supervisor. Henrietta is the primary manufacturing location for our Destuff-it™ Portable Ergonomic Conveyor. When Greg arrived, he noticed each welder had a unique set of skills and aptitudes for certain processes.
"I came up with this idea for a weekly session where team members can show others how to do something faster,” Greg explained. This idea would soon become known as a Whacky Wednesday Welding Workshop, or WWWW. Each workshop is just 15-minutes and the whole team arrives in PPE ready to learn.
The very first workshop focused on the platform extension welding process for Destuff-it™units. One welder could complete this process in a lightning-fast 15 minutes, “You gotta show us,” Greg recalled telling them with a laugh.
Over time, Whacky Wednesdays evolved into a way for Henrietta’s welders to showcase their official Process Improvements. One notable example involved the implementation of a new welding fixture. Greg explained, “The operator platform on the Destuff-it™ moves up and down along these ‘uprights.’ To fit them, it took two people about 30-minutes. A welder identified the need for and designed a new fixture that would help tackle this job. Once the fixture was built, we had a WWWW on its implementation.”
The results and impact of Whacky Wednesday Welding Workshops speak for themselves – faster processes, smarter tools, and more engagement. The Welding Team at Henrietta is not only improving processes but also gaining confidence and much-deserved recognition. Continuous Improvement is simpler than it seems when you have consistency, creativity, and a team willing to share what works!